ARTICLES ABOUT PORTSMOUTH BY DATE - PAGE 4

Affectionately known as Bocephus, Hank Williams Jr. represents the rowdy side of country music's heritage. Not pop-slick or male-model pretty, he's beloved for his plain-spoken lyrics and undiluted country-rock. At age 64, he's a couple of decades past his days as a hit maker, but he still managed to cause a stir in 2011 with his political anthem "Keep the Change. " He performs at nTelos Wireless Pavilion in Portsmouth on Saturday, Aug. 31. Home-grown Southern rocker Seth Stainback and Roosterfoot open the show at 8 p.m. Tickets: $33.45 to $84.45.

On the new bluegrass live album by Bruce Hornsby and Ricky Skaggs, near the end of the tune "Toy Heart," Hornsby takes a rollicking solo piano break that connects ragtime and gospel with the high, lonesome sound of Appalachian string-band music. When the Skaggs band, Kentucky Thunder, storms back in, it's as if two distant cousins have finally found friendship and are kicking up their heels together. Oddly enough, it wasn't supposed to happen at all. "That was a total mistake," Hornsby said in a telephone interview.

ISLE OF WIGHT – Portsmouth and Isle of Wight investigators and Sam, a cadaver dog, didn't find a body at Ragged Island Wildlife Refuge on Thursday afternoon. Isle of Wight Sheriff Mark Marshall said Portsmouth detectives had advised they were following up a psychic's tip that the body of a Portsmouth homicide victim might be in the park. Jan Clark, a spokeswoman for Portsmouth police, said some of Marshall's information was incorrect, but declined to provide any details or confirm whether a psychic was involved.

Former Old Dominion standout Kent Bazemore had 18 points and five assists Monday night to help the Golden State Warriors beat the Phoenix Suns 91-77 for the NBA Las Vegas Summer League championship. Bazemore, 6-foot-5 and 201 pounds, was named to the All-NBA Summer League team. In the championship game, he was 8-for-18 from the field, grabbed four rebounds and made a steal. He averaged 18.1 points, 6.1 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game as the Warriors went 7-0 in the league.

Shoppers World, a discount department store that specializes in uniforms and other clothing for the family, plans to open its first store in Virginia next month in Portsmouth, the Virginian-Pilot reported. The retailer, based in New York, has leased the former A.J. Wright store, with 25,000 square feet, in Victory Crossing Shopping Center at Victory and Airline boulevards, the city's Economic Development Department announced. It's the first store in the state for the chain, which has 25 locations from New York to Georgia and in the Midwest, with another scheduled to open in Richmond in November.

After being stuck on their coal ship in Portsmouth for nearly two months, the crew of the Antonis G. Pappadakis can stretch their legs a little. After considerable confusion, the crew of more than a dozen men obtained new shore passes, which allow them to get outside the Portsmouth Marine Terminal gates to run errands and buy food, a local marine surveyor said on Monday. "What (U.S.) Customs (and Border Protection) has done is they required the ship master to log the crewmen on and off the vessel by name and then by 3 o'clock every day they verify they're all aboard," said Decator "Tate" Austin, who's been interacting with the crew and working with the ship, which is not allowed to leave the harbor pending an environmental pollution case.

Smithfield Foods is shuttering its Portsmouth hot dog and deli meat plant in August, an executive at the company said. "Plant will close on August 16" in keeping with plans that were formalized in 2011, said Jeff Gough, Smithfield's senior vice president for human resources. As a result, 122 employees will be laid off, according to a notification filed with the state. The closure of the plant, which was run by a subsidiary, Smithfield Pack Co., comes as the company shifts production to an $80 million, state-of-the-art hot dog plant in Kinston, N.C. That plant is expected to employ 330 jobs, according to a press release from the North Carolina governor's office.

Carly Rae Jepsen scored one of the biggest hits of 2012 with the inescapable ear worm "Call Me Maybe. " The track delighted millions - and irritated almost as many - with its chirpy chorus, sweetened with lilting strings. The same album that featured "Call Me Maybe" included "Beautiful," a duet with Justin Bieber. On Saturday, June 8, she headlines the Hot 100.5 Summer Fiasco at nTelos Pavilion amphitheater in Olde Towne Portsmouth. The show starts at 5 p.m. Tickets are $28.30 to $47.80 from Ticketmaster.

Few craft media may be more deeply rooted in the traditions of the past than the making of quilts. But while many Southern women from earlier times might recognize the contemporary needlework of Mississippi artist Gwendolyn A. Magee as something akin to the home-made bed coverings of their day, it's probably safe to say they'd quickly see a stark and harrowing difference. Instead of focusing on domestic utility and creature comfort, Magee gives this mainstay of rural Southern culture a modern twist, mining the medium's unexpected potential to mark a period when the lives of many black people were bloodied by persistent racial injustice.

Twice a week, Andy Stein, a burly bearded tango aficionado, opens his Port Warwick home to a rotating cast of dance devotees. They trickle in from Gloucester, from Virginia Beach, from Portsmouth, Williamsburg and closer by to share in an instant, pop-up community created by their common interest in the Argentine-spawned dance. It's an interest that verges on the fanatic, with dancers taking lessons across the region - at Country Bootleggers Dance Studio in Yorktown, an oft-cited favorite, and the home of Mercedes Cook in Portsmouth another - and seeking out nightly opportunities to practice their craft.